Duncan Baker, Conservative MP for North Norfolk, has become the first Norfolk MP to sign the Warm This Winter pledge, following a meeting with UEA student group Get Norfolk Greener. He is also the 44th MP to sign the pledge, which has cross-party support.
Duncan Baker said, “I am delighted to sign this pledge because it is so important to create a cleaner and greener future for generations to come. I also wholly agree in doing all we can to retrofit our housing stock to help keep households warm every winter. From small changes we can do ourselves to larger actions within governments we need to continue investing in sustainable and renewable forms of energy.”
MP Duncan Baker holding his signed Warm This Winter pledge.
Fran File, one of the students behind the campaign and who took part in the meeting said, “A huge ‘thank-you’ to Duncan Baker for showing leadership on the issue of affordable energy, decent green homes, and a more rapid switch from polluting fossil fuels, to cleaner energy. The well being a prosperity of families and nature in Norfolk depends on action to achieve net zero.”
The pledge, authored by Warm This Winter, a national coalition of forty organisations, including the Norfolk Wildlife Trust and energy poverty groups. Get Norfolk Greener is making the case for action on climate and energy transition in local terms, with all nine Norfolk MPs.
Matt Higham, Manager of Howells Deli.
The meeting also heard from Matt Higham who manages Howells Deli, a small business in Wells-Next-The-Sea. Matt told Mr Baker how his business, like others, had to close during very hot weather last summer because its refrigeration system could not cope with temperatures around 40.C. “It’s an issue for business, nature, and all of us,” says Matt, “there is no time to lose in taking faster and stronger action to cut emissions causing climate heating.”
Dilys Goodridge, 2023.